Ice
by Thel
Summary: Daniel and Jack are caught offworld, trying to escape certain death.


TITLE: Ice  
AUTHOR: Thel  
EMAIL: kethe@hotmail.com  
ARCHIVE: Sure, knock yourself out. Just let me know where to find it.  
FEEDBACK: Please. Good or bad, bring it on. Here, or by email. : )  
CATEGORY: Angst/Drama… smarm? I dunno.  
SPOILERS: Ummm… none really  
SEASON: Late season 2  
RATING: Still Gen, darn it! Stop it! Alright, even I can admit that this has slashy elements in parts but it's not!  
SUMMARY: Daniel and Jack are racing against time, trapped under the ice.  
STATUS: Complete  
THANKS TO: Pettygrew, as always, for the beta. This dark little number came out of a bunnyscicle that I found after watching Solitudes.

- - - - - 

-Jack-

I knew today was going to be bad. Don't ask me how. Call it instinct. Finely honed instinct.

Here's the thing about instinct… you should never ignore it.

Well, I did.

That explains how we ended up here. 'Here' is a loosely arranged collection of huts and a bunch of guys in grass skirts. 'Here' is Daniel and me being herded up a short flight of stairs toward the Gate like the docile little sacrificial lambs that we are. 'Here' is Carter and Teal'c in hiding, the only two to get away when everything went south. Last but not least, 'here' is Daniel Jackson wincing as they jab him with a spear for daring to speak out and try to make this whole mess go away.

"Hey!" I bark. Can't help it. That's what I do.

The spear points retreat. Daniel rubs his upper arm ruefully, still gifting the chieftain with a disappointed expression that, if we were in the safety of the SGC, would have everyone begging on bended knee for forgiveness. Probably something involving chocolate or coffee.

"Daniel? You okay?"

"What?" He's forgotten already, mind moving on from sharp metal point in his flesh to the next archaeo-anthropological mystery. He massages his arm absently, something he started and simply forgot to stop.

"Daniel?" I try again, impatient at the situation, not at him. "A little focus here?"

"What?" He's gone. He's thinking something. I know better than to interrupt again. He's chasing a thought.

A thought he abruptly loses as a spear butt strikes him in the back. He stumbles forward. I catch him before he can trip and fall, just one hand out to steady him. If he wasn't so busy trying to figure out this mess, he never would have been hit.

There's a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as his gaze refocuses on us. It's over. He's lost his train of thought. Whatever he had, it's gone and we're out of time.

We're stuck in a crowd of spears staring at the Stargate. For a sick, twisting moment, I'm sure that we're going to be marched up on to the platform and left to be swallowed up by the vortex-thing. All in all, not a bad way to go but I have plans for the weekend.

- - - - -

-Daniel-

I'm missing something. I know I'm missing something. How did this happen? Everything was fine. The chief loved us, his family loved us. Even his mangy yellow dog loved us… well, Jack. Dogs love Jack. Dogs and kids.

Ow.

Jack's looking angry. I have to focus a bit harder and find this answer. He's asking me something… something. It's right there. I know it is.

I must have stopped moving. Something sharp just jabbed me in the arm. Strangely enough, it helped focus. Pain… spears. Something… spears are ceremonial. Ceremonial. The temple… Maybe if we…

Ow!

Okay, that hurt. Something just hit my back. I almost had it too. Maybe if I… No. Gone.

I look down at Jack's hand on my arm, steadying me, and then back up at his face. He's really angry now. You can tell he's angry because he doesn't look angry. He just goes quiet.

We're at the Stargate again. Right in front of it. For a moment, I wonder if we are going to be sacrificed to the event horizon. There are some parallels in Earth culture where outsiders would be feed to a primal force of nature. These are often…

Ow. _Again_.

The shaman has his fingers twined in my hair, leaning me forward and shaking me like a rag doll. He's saying something… yelling something. I can feel his spit hitting the back of my neck. Thanks. Really appreciate that I…

I'm being spun around and thrown. Wait, there were stairs that way….

- - - - -

-Jack-

The Big Ugly has Daniel by the hair and he's shaking him like a terrier with a new chew toy.

And now he's…

"Dammit!"

An elbow to the face gets rid of the guy holding my arm and with a quick step forward, I have Daniel's elbow. He drags us both forward and we stumble down the stairs. We manage to keep our feet, barely, but we are now surrounded by spears again.

The guy whose nose I broke comes screaming down the stairs, pointing at me and gesturing to Daniel. I take a step forward, and then Daniel is there before I can move. He's saying something to them. Speaking rationally and calmly while I just want to leap over there and continue rearranging his face.

The ugly guy steps forward, fist raised. Daniel, being Daniel, does not defend himself. He merely raises his head and braces for impact. This is going to get bad. He hits one of my team and I'll go for them. If this is the way they communicate, then they're going to find out that this is one language I speak well. Better than Daniel, that's for sure.

I wait. Daniel waits. The guy waits. Nobody moves. Daniel does it. Stubborn son of a bitch stares the guy down. With a laugh and a muttered curse, the man slinks away.

It's a minor victory, but I'll take it. Especially given the fact that the Chief Ugly is eyeing us like the last beer at a frat boy party.

- - - - -

-Daniel-

Whew. I wasn't sure if that was going to work. I figured that this was a tribe with traditional alpha male hierarchy. A show of aggression would get me beaten up for certain. A show of bravado might be appreciated. Sad to think that playground rules are the same no matter where you go.

It hasn't really done that much for us though. We're still stuck, we're still surrounded by spears and we're still facing a Stargate that has started dialling up. I look over at the DHD. One of the Shaman's henchmen is dialling up. I crane my neck, but I can't see the address from here.

"We're sorry." I speak to the Shaman in their language. It's an odd dialect. Sort of Indo-Malaysian with a hint of proto-Mongolian. It's not my forte, but I was managing alright.

He almost relents. I can see it. This is something he has to do, not something he wants to do. I decide to press my advantage, slim though it is.

"Whatever we did, we can make up for it." Please God, just don't let this end with us facing down an incoming wormhole. "We will make amends. We'll do whatever you need."

I'm clumsy, stumbling over the words. Sixth chevron. Only one more.

"Please. Whatever we did, I'll make it right. Let him go." I gesture to Jack. "This is my fault."

- - - - -

-Jack-

Oh no you don't. I step up, putting a hand on Daniel's shoulder. He's trying to take the blame. That's _so_ not happening.

We're grabbed and pulled toward the Chief, away from the gate as it explodes outward and stabilises into the event horizon. Finally. Daniel must have convinced them.

The spears don't drop. Maybe not. He convinced them that we shouldn't die in the vortex, but apparently skewered is still a possibility. Daniel hasn't stopped talking, not even when Tall, Dark and Bloody gestures with his spear again. This is getting old.

They're backing up and Daniel's gone quiet.

"Daniel?"

He turns, looking a little guilty. "I'm sorry, Jack. We're being punished for something, but I don't know what. I can't make them understand and they won't talk to me." His voice is full of frustrated desperation. Not talking to Daniel is worse than a beating. He may not like the beatings, but he can rationalise them. Choosing not to communicate is something outside of his comprehension.

"It's okay." I have no idea what's going to happen next, and I only hope that Carter and Teal'c get out of here and back to the SGC. Whatever happens, if the worst-case scenario happens, I don't want this to end with Daniel thinking I'm mad at him. I've got enough bad karma to answer for as it is.

Here we go. The Chief Ugly has his arms in the air. He's either about to start flying, or we're having our sentence read. I take a step closer to Daniel, getting between him and the broken-nosed ugly. Something tells me that he's just, pardon the pun, dying to help out with the sentencing phase of this whole thing.

Annnnnd… now what?

Chief Ugly has stopped talking and Big Ugly is rallying the troops. They're coming at us. I push Daniel behind me and give up ground.

"Daniel?"

"I don't know, Jack. Looks like they're trying to get us into the gate."

"Any idea why?" I mean… if they're doing this at spear point, it can't be a good thing.

"They just keep talking about redemption and returning us to 'The Source'. God, Jack. I don't understand." He babbles something to them in their own language. They ignore him. We're at the stairs again, backing up with the spears at our fronts.

"Carter! Teal'c!" I bellow. "The moment the Gate is clear, get home." I grunt as a spear point catches me, nicking the skin on my chest. Daniel is still talking a mile a minute, hands waving. I put my hands up, cupping my mouth as we're forced up the stairs. "GO HOME!" We came here by the Gate, they'll have to leave by the Gate. These guys can't guard it forever… right? Besides, Hammond'll check in eventually.

I double over as a final blow hits my belly and all the air left in my lungs wheezes out. I don't have time to breathe as I'm sucked backwards into the wormhole.

- - - - - 

-Daniel-

Jack hits hard, tumbling over backward. He takes a whooping breath as I fumble my way to him and try to help him up. The Stargate blinks out. It's dark here. I can barely see anything.

"Jack? Easy." I grip his shoulder… possibly his knee, I can't tell. "You're okay."

"Daniel?" He's disoriented. "It's cold."

"Yeah. I think we're in an ice cave."

"Oh." He clears his throat, getting his mental feet back under him. "Oh, that's not good."

"Well, there's no spears and the atmosphere is breathable."

"So, dial home." He pats his sleeve. "They left my GDO with me."

I pause. I didn't see much before the gate blinked out, but I saw enough. "There's no DHD, Jack."

"What?" He's up now, trying to find purchase on the slick surface.

"We're in an ice cave."

"Yeah, you said. Where's the exit?"

"There is none, Jack." I hesitate, not wanting to say the next. "As far as I could see, the cave is pretty small."

"Small?" I can't see it, but I can feel him looking in my direction. "How small?"

I swallow. Sometimes I hate being the perceptive one. "About the size of a Stargate vortex bubble."

"You mean the gate activating made the cave?"

"Yeah."

"Which means that we have until Carter figures out where we are to get out of here?"

"Yeah."

"We're in trouble."

"Oh yeah."

I look up. There's a little more light now. Something is filtering down from above. "Jack… there's light up there." I look over. I can see him now, the faint glow from above highlighting his hair.

- - - - -

-Jack-

I can just barely see Daniel as he points up, the lenses of his glasses reflecting the very dim light.

"That's very far away."

"Yes. Jack, I think we're in a glacier… well, not exactly." He pauses, thinking. "The Stargate is still stable. If we were in a glacier, we'd be at the bottom, and that's the erosion zone, so we'd be up to our knees in till…" He trails off. "Which is neither here nor there."

I can't see his expression, so I'm pretty sure he can't see mine, but he seems to have figured it out anyway.

"So we're in a 'not-glacier'?" I snarl.

"Perhaps it's an ice field, but a non-moving one. That doesn't really make much sense, but it is an alien planet. Anyway, the lights up there are the surface which we can see through crevasses in the ice. Um…. Cracks in the ice."

I love listening to him dumb things down for me. I once got him almost to the level of 'See Spot Run' with the look I'm currently using. I finally gave in and stopped playing dumb when I caught him looking for crayons and a colouring book.

"And knowing crevasses, we can't climb up. They'll be too unstable, but at least there's enough fissures in the ice to give us air." I was only vaguely aware of Daniel's jaw dropping as I cocked my head. "What is that grinding sound?"

"Probably the glacier." Daniel's back with me, looking around. "There's more light."

I spin around, almost take a header on the ice and right myself smoothly. I don't think Daniel caught that slip. He's right. There's more light.

"That's a DHD!" I'm skidding across the two feet to the ice wall. There, a scant four feet from us is a DHD. The light is the muted orange glow from the center dialling panel.

We have to dig it out. I can do this. If I can do this with broken ribs and a broken leg, I can do this now.

"Oh, God." I hear Daniel's soft oath.

"What?" I spin.

He's looking at the ice wall. "These scratches. Jack, these weren't caused by the event bubble. These were human."

"So?" It's out before I fully process. I can see Daniel's face now and I get it. Someone tried this route before. They opened the Gate on them before they could finish. We're running out of time.

"Jack…"

"No." I don't let him finish the thought. "There's two of us and we have knives. I'll take high, you take low and we start digging. Use your knife to lever out the chunks. We'll get this done."

I can see him processing this. He nods firmly, dropping to his knees and sliding up to me. He doesn't respond. He just pulls out the belt knife the natives so thoughtfully left us, and starts chipping away. We're both aware of the timeline. We're up against Carter's brain, Teal'c's determination and the SGC's loyalty. They'll move mountains to get us back. I try not to think about it as I chip away.

- - - - -

-Daniel-

My focus narrows down to the ice and the chipping. I don't know how long we've been at this, but it's just not fast enough. Every time the ice groans, I tense up, thinking that it's the sound of the chevrons locking. I wonder if we'll get any notice? Will the bubble explode outward, enveloping us without a fight? Will we have time to watch the chevrons count down?

Easy, easy Daniel. Jack would knock your block off if he could hear those thoughts. I stab my knife into the ice fiercely, nearly losing it as my hand suddenly cramps. I hiss and shake out the offending limb, moving right back to hacking. I manage to get the tip of my knife worked into a crack and lever on it with all my strength.

I nearly pitch over as a huge block of ice releases with a crack. It throws me forward and I lose my grip, sliding backwards on my knees to the dip in the slightly rounded cave floor.

"God." I rasp. I'm exhausted. My back feels like it's on fire. My hands are red and numb, swollen from over-use and cold, scraped raw by the ice crystals. I track my block of ice as it slides away from the wall and grinds to a halt next to me.

"Nice one, Daniel." Jack grins. I look up at him, blinking around the snow melting in my hair. He frowns, stepping forward and patting my head. "Dammit, Daniel, you're freezing."

"We're in an ice cave, Jack." I respond, as if that explains it all.

"And I've been showering you with ice chunks for God only knows how long." He swipes his hand over my hair, sluicing the cold water off behind me. "You're soaked."

I shrug. "I'm fine." Cold, tired and hurting, but fine. We both are. I look up at him. "We have to keep going."

"Yeah." He sighs and turns back, putting an arm up on the wall and leaning his forehead against it. "Yeah." His voice is muffled by the wet cloth. "Just… a minute."

I put my hands on my thighs, and lean forward, still on my knees. "Was it like this in Antarctica?" We've never talked about it. He was a little… crabby afterward. Jack hates weakness. He wasn't all that crazy about the pain, but it was the loss of strength and the ability to move on his own that frustrated him. We stayed a safe distance away and let him gripe until he was back on his feet, and then we moved on… collectively.

"Few less broken bones this time." He drags his forehead across his sleeve, wiping off the sweat and ice water. "Little easier." He looks back at me. "You want me to take the lower half?"

"No." I shake my head, spraying water. "It's fine. Your knees." I gesture, waddling closer while still on my knees. "I'm fine."

He nods and stands up straight again, driving his knife into the ice. "Somehow this seems better. You know?"

"Because you're not injured?"

"Well… that." He grunts as the knife wedges and he has to tug it free. "And I can do something this time. I don't feel as…" He drives the knife in, wedging a chunk the size of his fist loose.

"Helpless?"

"Yeah, dumb, I know."

I crawl back into place, making sharp stabbing motions as I chop away. The ice around both of us is flecked with red where the ice crystals have bounced off our arms and hands, cutting them. I hate to think of Sam finding this bloody patch if we don't succeed. God, Sam, if it happens, I hope you know that it's not your fault.

For the moment, though we ignore it keep on going.

"Not dumb."

"Yeah?" He grunts.

"Doing something. Was on a dig once. Buried temple." I'm rasping out the words, my breath coming fast as I work away at the ice. "Collapsed. Didn't help, but I dug them out. Needed to do something."

"Keeping busy."

"Yeah." I remember that so clearly now. Afifah and Rabi, caught under the mountain of rubble as the small temple we were painstakingly pulling from the sand dropped down on top of them. They were dead. Dead instantly, most likely, but digging was better than mourning.

Like with my parents. Entombed by stone. I remember Jake grabbing me, holding me back. If only…

I jab the knife in again and it snaps, driving sideways and slicing open the side of my hand. I double over and slip, sliding into the center of the cave again.

"Daniel?" Jack is there prying my hand away from my chest, wrapping a water-soaked cloth around it.

"I'm fine." I gasp. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

"It's okay, take a minute." He grips my shoulder tightly.

"Don't have a minute." I pant. I know Sam's thinking. I know Teal'c's planning. I know the General is fuming. They'll get us home. But will they kill us doing it?

"It's okay, Daniel."

I look up at him. We're not going to make it. "Jack, I'm sorry."

"Not your fault, Daniel." He offers me a strained half smile. "Come on. I'll switch knives with you. Yours still has a bit of a blade."

"Jack..."

"We can do this, Daniel."

It's at that exact moment that there's a resounding thunk and the first chevron engages.

- - - - -

-Jack-

We're out of time.

I look from Daniel, kneeling on the floor, back up to the Gate. _Chevron One._

"Dammit, Carter… Just a little more time." I haul Daniel to his feet and turn him to our make-shift cave. "Get in there, face the wall. Close your eyes."

"What?" He shrugs, pulling his arm free. "What are you…?"

"Daniel, just do it."

"No!" He looks horrified.

_Chevron Two._

"Daniel, we do _not_ have time for this!"

"And, so, what? I'm just supposed to let you stand there?" He's shouting back at me.

_Chevron Three._ So fast. They must be dialling from the planet.

"It's you or neither of us." I assure him. "Tell Carter it's not her fault."

"You tell her." He challenges.

_Chevron Four._

"Daniel, I am not spending my last minutes alive yelling at you!" I yell at him.

"Then get over here and save yourself."

_Chevron Five._

"You have to be there. Dammit, they need you."

"They need _you_, Jack. All of us need you. None of this would happen without you. I'll quit, Sam will give up her posting and Teal'c will leave."

_Chevron Six._

"You think it'll be any better to lose you? Daniel, you make this thing work. The SGC lives and dies by you, because of you, for you! It'll go on without me."

He gives me a terrible, sad smile. "It'll go on without _us_, Jack."

I roar out my denial as the Seventh Chevron locks and my world turns into light and a blistering warmth.

- - - - -

-Daniel-

It happens almost in slow motion. Jack throws his head back and the wormhole blossoms outward. I close my eyes as something strikes me.

My head slams against something hard. My back crawls with cold, but my front is warm. Behind my tightly shut eyes, blue light dances.

I take a gasping breath.

I'm not dead.

Why aren't I dead?

Oh God, Jack.

I'm in the ice nook that we carved out. He pushed me. I felt him hit me, and then…

I'm being held. Something is pressing me against the wall. Heavy.

"Jack?"

My voice trembles. I don't want to know. Please, don't do this. Please, not this. He pushed me. Pushed me to safety when the wormhole exploded.

At what cost?

I make a strangled little noise as his head slumps forward, his nose resting in the crook of my neck.

I don't want to know. I don't want to open my eyes and face the scorched remains, like those horrible feet on Handante. I'll just wait here, eyes tightly shut, until they come and take him away until I can go somewhere and hide… and maybe scream for a while.

"I'm so sorry." I whisper.

"For what?" A voice whispers back.

"Jack?" My eyes pop open, despite my earlier resolve. "Oh God, don't move. We'll get help."

"Good." Jack says. "I'm too tired."

I look down, preparing myself.

There's no blood. Nothing. I warp my arms around him disbelievingly.

"Jack? You're not…?"

"I think you've lost weight. Pretty sure it scorched my back."

I start shaking. The infamous capricious SG1 luck strikes again. "You're alright?" I hug him. I can't help myself.

"We're alright." I can feel him grin.

"Colonel? Daniel? Can you hear me?" Sam's voice rings from the radios on our shoulders. 

We made it. 

We're going home. 


End file.
